Rob and I have bought a small plot in Mid Wales near where we live and the plan is to build a 4-bed energy efficient house. It is going to drive us insane! In the meantime, as a university researcher and trainee archivist I'm going to explore some of the records out there on and effecting self-builds. Wish us luck…

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Spring!

It is time for an update...as we have been busy! This appears to come as a surprise to our ex architect but thankfully things are feeling more real now.

Rob is organising a team of several specialists which is tricky but positive and we're really lucky to have so many people keen to work on our house - which has been registered for now as Cae Bach (little field). It seems like the most apt description of what we have at the moment and as we're currently in Cae Mawr...

So, we currently have new local architects who haven't much experience of very low energy houses but are keen to work on more and they have sent out a tender for foundations and are in the process of finishing up the technical drawings.

We have our structural engineer from Shrewsbury who is completing the foundation drawings this week and starting on plans for the load bearing walls, the roof, and the steel 'goal posts' which will support all the glazing at the back of the house.

We have a Passiv designer, based in Herefordshire, who is detailing the structural and insulation sections and junctions for air tightness and phpp; overseeing the relationship between the heating, circulation, & insulation.

Our local heating engineer is designing the underfloor heating powered by the ground source system

The energy consultant (don't know where he is based - been talking on the phone so far!) is working out how the MVHR system, the solar hot water, the PV and the ground source work together to keep our house at a lovely 20 degrees!

And finally we have an air tightness and windows specialist builder overseeing the construction too...

We've gone from a one man does it all (or actually very little) to potentially too many cooks!

We're lacking a builder of course, but hopefully not for too much longer as a few seem interested. We're off up north to visit friends tomorrow and will meet some at a project in Lancaster.

In other news...

A great community venture is attempting to reopen our village shop Cafe Clettwr